Academic Publishing
Academic publishing describes the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in journal article, book or thesis form. The part of academic written output that is not formally published but merely printed up or posted on the Internet is often called the "grey literature". Most scientific and scholarly journals, and many academic and scholarly books, though not all, are based on some form of peer review or editorial refereeing to qualify texts for publication. Peer review quality and selectivity standards vary greatly from journal to journal, publisher to publisher, and field to field.
Most established academic disciplines have their own journals and other outlets for publication, although many academic journals are somewhat interdisciplinary, and publish work from several distinct fields or subfields. There is also a tendency for existing journals to divide into specialized sections as the field itself becomes more specialized. Along with the variation in review and publication procedures, the kinds of publications that are accepted as contributions to knowledge or research differ greatly among fields and subfields.
Academic publishing is undergoing major changes, as it makes the transition from the print to the electronic format. Business models are different in the electronic environment. Since the early 1990s, licensing of electronic resources, particularly journals, has been very common. Currently, an important trend, particularly with respect to scholarly journals, is open access via the Internet. There are two main forms of open access: open access publishing, in which a whole journal (or book) or individual articles are made available free for all on the web by the publisher at the time of publication (sometimes, but not always, for an extra publication fee paid by the author or the author's institution or funder); and open access self-archiving, in which authors themselves make a copy of their published articles available free for all on the web.
Self Publishing
Self-publishing is the publication of any book or other media by the author of the work, without the involvement of an established third-party publisher. A self-published physical book is said to be privately printed. The author is responsible and in control of entire process including design (cover/interior), formats, price, distribution, marketing & PR. The authors can do it all themselves or outsource all or part of the process to companies that offer these services.
Print on Demand
Print-On-Demand (POD) publishing refers to the ability to print high-quality books as needed. For self-published books, this is often a more economical option than conducting a print run of hundreds or thousands of books. Many companies, such as Createspace (owned by Amazon.com), Lulu and iUniverse allow printing single books at per-book costs not much higher than those paid by publishing companies for large print runs. Most POD companies also offer distribution through Amazon.com and other online and brick-and-mortar retailers.
Electronic (E-book) Publishing
There are a variety of E-book formats and tools that can be used to create them. The most popular formats are .mobi, PDF, HTML and Amazon's .azw format. Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords all offer online tools for creating and converting files from other formats to formats that can be sold on their websites. Because it is possible to create E-books with no up-front or per-book costs, E-book publishing is an extremely popular option for self-publishers. Some recent bestsellers, such as Hugh Howey's Wool, began as digital-only books.
Vanity publishing
The term 'vanity publishing' originated at a time when the only way for an author to get a book published was to sign a contract with a publishing company.[citation needed] Reputable publishing companies generally paid authors a percentage of sales, so it was in the company's interest to sign only authors whose books would sell well. It was extremely difficult for the typical unknown author to get a publishing contract under these circumstances, and many 'vanity publishers' sprang up to give these authors an alternative: essentially, they would publish any book in exchange for payment up front from the author. The term 'vanity publishing' arose from the common perception that the authors who paid for such services were motivated by an exaggerated sense of their own talent.
The line between 'vanity publishing' and 'traditional publishing' has, however, become increasingly blurred in the past few years. Currently there are several companies that offer digital and/or print publication with no up front cost. However, most of these companies also offer add-on services such as editing, marketing and cover design. Self-publishing companies that fit this model include Lulu, iUniverse and Createspace (owned by Amazon.com). An author who simply hands his or her book over to one of these companies, expecting the company to make it a bestseller, would meet the previously established definition of 'vanity publishing,' but it's unclear how many authors fit this description. Further blurring the distinction between self-publishing and traditional publishing was Penguin's purchase in 2012 of Author Solutions, widely considered a vanity press.
Increasingly, then, 'vanity publishing' is being defined as a behavior rather than a set characteristic of certain companies or individuals, although there remain a handful of companies that clearly qualify as vanity publishers. These are companies that offer the cachet of 'being published' and make the majority of their income on fees for intangible services paid for by the author, rather than sales revenue. These companies are also known as joint venture or subsidy presses.
Accessible Publishing
Accessible publishing is an approach to publishing and book design whereby books and other texts are made available in alternative formats designed to aid or replace the reading process. Alternative formats that have been developed to aid different people to read include varieties of larger fonts, specialised fonts for certain kinds of reading disabilities, Braille, e-books, and automated Audiobooks and DAISY digital talking books.
Accessible publishing has been made possible through developments in technology such as Print on demand (POD), E-book readers, the XML structured data format, and the Internet.
History
Prior to the twenty first century the publishing industry focused on the production of printed books. The predominant publishing theory was based around increasing the economy of scale of the books by only having one format available. In this way books could be mass produced and made available for the general public. This model did not allow for any other format to be widely available, however.
There were a number of developments in technology that increased the accessibility of books. The first of these was the development of the Braille language by Louis Braille in 1821. After this there was the development of audiobooks which originated from the United States Congress in 1931 and became popularised by advances in recording and the use of voice actors.
In 1980, Thorndike Press came into existence as a republisher of large print books. Thorndike bought the rights for large print versions of books from publishers and then republished them in a larger and more accessible format for people with reading difficulties.
Recent Development
New portable readers, such as the VictorReader Stream and the Plextalk Pocket handle talking books in a wide variety of formats including DAISY Digital Talking Book, MP3, text only, and many others.
New technology, such as the Sony Reader and Amazon’s Kindle, has the ability to alter the size of the font automatically. For example, the reader can choose from six different font size settings on the Kindle. The large font sizes available allow for easier reading for the visually impaired.
ReadHowYouWant is another leader in developing this technology. It works in partnership with publishers to make books available in all formats all across the world. This includes specially designed fonts for dyslexia, macular degeneration and line tracking problems.
Zine
A zine is most commonly a small circulation self-published work of original and/or appropriated texts and images usually reproduced via photocopier.
A popular definition includes that circulation must be 1,000 or less, although in practice the significant majority are produced in editions of less than 100, and profit is not the primary intent of publication.
Zines are written in a variety of formats, from computer-printed text to comics to handwritten text (an example being Cometbus). Print remains the most popular zine format, usually photo-copied with a small circulation. Topics covered are broad, including fanfiction, politics, art and design, ephemera, personal journals, social theory, single topic obsession, or sexual content far enough outside of the mainstream to be prohibitive of inclusion in more traditional media. The time and materials necessary to create a zine are seldom matched by revenue from sale of zines. Small circulation zines are often not explicitly copyrighted and there is a strong belief among many zine creators that the material within should be freely distributed. In recent years a number of photocopied zines have risen to prominence or professional status and have found wide bookstore and online distribution. Notable among these are Giant Robot, Dazed & Confused, Bust, Bitch, Cometbus, Influentza, Velocitylab and Maximum RocknRoll.
History
Origins and overview
Since the invention of the printing press (if not before), dissidents and marginalized citizens have published their own opinions in leaflet and pamphlet form. Thomas Paine published an exceptionally popular pamphlet titled "Common Sense" that led to insurrectionary revolution. Paine is considered to be a significant early independent publisher and a zinester in his own right, but then, the mass media as we now know it did not exist. A countless number of obscure and famous literary figures would self-publish at some time or another, sometimes as children (often writing out copies by hand), sometimes as adults.
The exact origins of the word "zine" is uncertain, but it was widely in use in the early 1970s, and most likely is a shortened version of the word "Magazine."[1] with at least one zine lamenting the abbreviation. The earliest citation known is from 1946, in Startling Stories.
In the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin also started a literary magazine for psychiatric patients at a Pennsylvania hospital, which was distributed amongst the patients and hospital staff. This could be considered the first zine, since it captures the essence of the philosophy and meaning of zines. The concept of zines clearly had an ancestor in the amateur press movement (a major preoccupation of H. P. Lovecraft), which would in its turn cross-pollinate with the subculture of science fiction fandom in the 1930s.
1930s–1960s and science fiction
During and after the Great Depression, editors of "pulp" science fiction magazines became increasingly frustrated with letters detailing the impossibilities of their science fiction stories. Over time they began to publish these overly-scrutinizing letters, complete with their return addresses. This caused these fans to begin writing to each other, now complete with a mailing list for their own science fiction fanzines.
Fanzines enabled fans to write not only about science fiction but about fandom itself and, in soi disant perzine (i.e. personal zine), about themselves. As the Damien Broderick novel Transmitters (1984) shows, unlike other, isolated, self-publishers, the more "fannish" (fandom-oriented) fanzine publishers had a shared sensibility and at least as much interest in their relationships between fans as in the literature that inspired it.
A number of leading science fiction and fantasy authors rose through the ranks of fandom, such as Frederik Pohl and Isaac Asimov. George R. R. Martin is also said to have started writing for Fanzines, but has been quoted condemning the practice of fans writing stories set in other authors' worlds.
1970s and punk
Punk zines emerged as part of the punk movement in the late 1970s. These started in the UK and the U.S.A. and by March 1977 had spread to other countries such as Ireland. Cheap photocopying had made it easier than ever for anyone who could make a band flyer to make a zine.
1980s and Factsheet Five
During the 1980s and onwards, Factsheet Five (the name came from a short story by John Brunner), originally published by Mike Gunderloy and now defunct, catalogued and reviewed any zine or small press creation sent to it, along with their mailing addresses. In doing so, it formed a networking point for zine creators and readers (usually the same people). The concept of zine as an art form distinct from fanzine, and of the "zinesters" as member of their own subculture, had emerged. Zines of this era ranged from perzines of all varieties to those that covered an assortment of different and obscure topics that web sites (such as Wikipedia) might cover today but for which no large audience existed in the pre-internet era.
1990s and riot grrrl
Although the first feminist zine was printed in 1989 in Minneapolis, Minnesota (Not Your Bitch 1989-1992 ), it was the 90's that saw the rise of the riot grrrl zine. The early 1990s riot grrrl scene encouraged an explosion of zines of a more raw and explicit nature. Following this, zines enjoyed a brief period of attention from conventional media and a number of zines were collected and published in book form, such as Donna Kossy's Kooks Magazine (1988–1991), published as Kooks (1994, Feral House).
Zines and the Internet
With the rise of the Internet in the late 1990s, zines faded from public awareness. It can be argued that the sudden growth of the Internet, and the ability of private web-pages to fulfill much the same role of personal expression as zines, was a strong contributor to their pop culture expiration. Indeed, many zines were transformed into websites, such as Boingboing. However, zines have subsequently been embraced by a new generation, often drawing inspiration from craft, graphic design and artists' books, rather than political and subcultural reasons.
Publishing Zines
While zines are generally self-published, there are a few independent publishers who specialise in making art zines. One such 'art-zine' publisher (who also publishes books) is Nieves Books in Zurich, founded by Benjamin Sommerhalder. Another is Café Royal, UK based and founded by Craig Atkinson in 2005.
Distributors
Zines are most often obtained through mail-order distributors. There are many catalogued and online based mail-order distros for zines. Some of the longer running and most stable operations include Last Gasp in San Francisco, California, Parcell Press in Philadelphia, Microcosm Publishing in Portland, Oregon, Great Worm Express Distribution in Toronto, CornDog Publishing in Ipswich, Café Royal in the UK, Fistful of Books in Scotland, AK Press in Oakland, California, Missing Link Records in Melbourne and Soft Skull Press in Brooklyn, New York. Zine distros often have websites that you can place orders on. Because these are small scale DIY projects run by an individual or small group, they often close after only a short time of operation. Those that have been around the longest are often the most dependable.
Bookstores
Several bookstores stock zines. Notable examples include Polyester Books in Melbourne, Australia; Cafe Royal in the UK; Reading Frenzy and Powell's in Portland, OR; Needles and Pens in San Francisco; Atomic Books in Baltimore; Quimby's in Chicago; Mac's Backs Paperbacks in Cleveland, OH; Boxcar Books in Bloomington, Indiana; Wooden Shoe Books in Philadelphia; Civic Media Center in Gainesville, FL; Bluestockings in New York City; Five in Charleston, SC; Brian MacKenzie Infoshop in Washington, DC; Book Beat & Co. in Oklahoma City, OK; Printed Matter in New York City; Copacetic Comics Co. and Big Idea Bookstore in Pittsburgh, PA; Reading Material in Tokyo, Japan; On Reading in Nagoya, Japan; as well as MonkeyWrench Books and Domy Books in Austin, TX.
Zinestores
Sticky Institute in Melbourne, Australia is a not-for-profit artist-run initiative dedicated solely to the distribution of zines.
Libraries
A number of major public and academic libraries carry zines and other small press publications, often with a specific focus (e.g. women's studies) or those that are relevant to a local region.
Libraries with notable zine collections include Barnard College Library and the University of Iowa Special Collections.
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